Friday, July 14, 1995
Sinking spirits, lack of preparation and drive earn women
seventh in HollandBy Mark J. Dittmer
and Grace Wen
Summer Bruin Senior Staff
The Olympics may not have started yet, but the U.S. women’s
water polo team has already finished playing this summer.
Because women’s water polo is not an Olympic sport, players have
to settle for the Olympic Tournament, played this year in the
Netherlands. The U.S. team returned from its stay in the
Netherlands on July 8 with a seventh-place finish in a 12-team
tournament.
The difference between the Olympics and the women’s water polo
tournament in Holland is simple.
"The Olympics are the Olympics," U.S. driver Coralie Simmons
said. "It’s every athlete’s dream to go to the Olympics. Here (in
Holland) we don’t have all of the athletes from the different
sports  it’s just women’s water polo."
Simmons is one of two national team members that plays for UCLA.
The other one is the national team’s starting goalie, Nicole
Payne.
The United States might have fared better last week had they
been at the Olympics, according to Payne.
"We would’ve trained for it, for one thing," Payne said, who
along with Simmons left directly from her finals at UCLA for
last-minute preparation before the tournament. "We didn’t train for
this tournament at all. We would have been playing together for
months if we were preparing for the Olympics."
In fact, the U.S. team had been assembled for only one week
before it was thrust into the international competition.
While other smaller countries are able to train together more
throughout the year  because they live in closer proximity to
one another  Team USA had some catching up to do, having not
played together since the previous summer.
"It’s more our goal to win the World Championships in 1998,"
Payne said, "So this didn’t matter to us as much."
The World Championship is the most prestigious women’s water
polo tournament, held every four years.
Nevertheless, the Americans in Holland still played a solid
tournament. The United States won three of its first five matches,
and found itself in a match against Italy to stay in contention for
the championship.
In that match, Team USA fell behind, and found itself playing
catch-up throughout the entire game. Though they were able to pare
the deficit to two goals, the United States could not pull even
with Italy, and the loss sent them into the losers’ bracket.
"With Italy, they ended up getting third, so it was tough
because they only beat us by two, and we feel like we could’ve been
there, around third place," Simmons said. "We just couldn’t put it
all together against them."
America then lost to rival Canada by one goal before beating
France in the seventh-place game. Host Holland came away with the
championship.
Payne and Simmons were satisfied with the seventh-place finish.
If the two Bruins that went to Holland were disappointed in
anything, it was the place they were playing, not the level at
which they played.
They wanted to be in Atlanta.
* * *
The UCLA men’s water polo team finished fourth in the Outdoor
Nationals tournament Sunday. Held at Diablo Valley College, the
12-team tournament featured club and varsity teams from around the
country.
On Friday, the Bruins battled conference rivals Stanford and
USC. Although they defeated the Cardinal, the team lost to the
Trojans by one goal.
Saturday, UCLA defeated UC Irvine and tied the Olympic Club.
The Olympic Club, a team comprised of past Olympic players,
defeated the defending national champions on Sunday. Coupled with
the loss to Harvard’s club team, the Bruins were sent home
early.
Daily Bruin File Photo
Nicole Payne, UCLA women’s water polo goalkeeper, led Team USA
to a seventh-place finish at the Olympic Tournament in the
Netherlands.